


'No Worst, There Is None'

by Mireille



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-30
Updated: 2004-06-30
Packaged: 2018-08-16 14:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8106043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: Wesley realizes there's always a 'worse.'





	

Wesley had always thought--if one defined 'always' as being the past year or so, at least--that it was foolish to believe that things couldn't possibly get worse than they were. Whenever things seemed as bad as they could possibly get, there was always something else waiting around the corner. 

When you'd lost the woman you thought you were in love with to one of your closest friends--and lost the friend in the process, when you were constantly in danger of attack from people who wanted to steal another friend's child and use him for their own nefarious purposes, when you'd had to kidnap that child to stop his father from killing him, when you'd just had your throat slit and nearly bled to death--well, that was the time for your oldest, and dearest, friend to try to murder you in retribution for what you'd done, because things could always be worse.

And just to add some spice to it, try finding out that you were wrong, and Connor had never been in any real danger. Not from Angel, at least. 

But right now, it honestly did seem as though things were as bad as they could be. The sun had gone out, at least over Los Angeles, and it would spread soon enough to the rest of the world. Vampires and demons were taking advantage of the endless night, flocking to L.A. from everywhere, turning the city into a playground for the evil and the undead. A giant, apparently unkillable Beast had slaughtered hundreds or thousands, and no one knew how to stop it. 

But, just to make things a little better, they had to bring back Angelus. 

They _had_ to; he'd accepted that before any of the others had, had taken the initiative and found someone who could do the job. They had no choice. Angelus knew about the Beast, and for some reason, Angel didn't, so they needed Angelus. 

And provided that none of them were careless enough to unlock his cell--and who would; they were all terrified of him, even if they were reluctant to admit that to one another--they were safe from him; he couldn't break through the steel of the cage they had him in. 

At least, they were physically safe. What he was doing to their minds....

Cordelia had been wrong. He _had_ seen Angelus before, when Rebecca Lowell had drugged Angel into artificially-induced happiness; but that had been temporary, and, as unpleasant as it had been, the chemically-created Angelus hadn't been like this. Hadn't been quite as evil. Quite as brilliant. Quite as unhinged, really. 

He'd talked every bit as much, though, and Wesley had thought he'd been prepared for this, after that. Angelus then had torn down most of the shreds of his self-respect, but he didn't actually think he _had_ any of that, any more. 

But it could hurt, nonetheless. Hearing those words come out of Angel's mouth, seeing the scorn and the mockery and the contempt in _Angel's_ eyes.... 

The worst part of that was, he wasn't sure that was all Angelus, not any more, not after what he'd done. 

There was that word again: "worst." "Bad" was an adjective that really should never be used in the superlative, he thought, because they were never going to reach "worst."

So as bad as things were now, there was something even worse waiting for them in the future.

Not really a comforting thought, Wesley decided, as he went back upstairs to let someone else take a turn with this.


End file.
